WoW Drops to 6.8 Million Subscribers

In today's investor call for Quarter 2 2014, which covers the months of April, May and June 2014, Blizzard revealed that WoW now has 6.8 million subscribers. This is a drop of 800,000 subscribers from the Quarter 1 2014 figure of 7.6 million.

Blizzard previews Nagrand

Blizzard

Our latest zone preview takes us into the expansive hills and rocky outcroppings of Nagrand, a verdant land located west of Talador and south of Frostfire Ridge. Here, great beasts cause the ground to quake beneath their feet, and the wolf riders of the Warsong—the legendary orc clan led by Grommash Hellscream himself—are always on the prowl. But they’re not the only ones who make this verdant land their home. We sat down with Senior Game Designer Eric Maloof and Associate Game Designer Kurt Sparkuhl to learn more.

(Check back later for music: Coming soon!)

Q. How is the Nagrand of Draenor different from the Nagrand people know from Outland? What’s the story in this zone?Eric Maloof:I think players will find that the Nagrand of Draenor isn’t really all that different in spirit from the Nagrand of Outland. There are some obvious physical differences—for example, the floating islands aren’t there anymore—but you’ll easily be able to see where those floating islands came from. We very much wanted to respect what people really enjoyed about their experience in Nagrand in The Burning Crusade and capture that, while still providing a twist to what you’ll experience there.

You’ll be led to Nagrand by a quest you’ll receive in your Garrison that involves sending new supplies to the front. The Alliance and the Horde—not working together, of course—are trying to establish a toehold in the zone in order to take on the Warsong clan. The Warsong clan has had problems with the ogres in the past, but they’re really the top power here.

The Alliance will be working alongside characters such as Vindicator Yrel and Rangari D’kaan, Thaelin, and Hansel as they progress through the storyline. The Horde will be working alongside Thrall, Durotan, Draka, and Drek’thar—even Aggra will show up and surprise Thrall.

Kurt Sparkuhl: Players will also have the opportunity to return to the Throne of Elements. Without spoiling too much, the elemental balance has been disrupted, and the elementals upon the plateau have become unstable. It will be up to players to unravel the mystery behind the disturbance before it’s too late.

The zone is just filled to the brim with story.

One of the things that sets Nagrand apart from any other zone is the amount of character-focused stories you’ll encounter. The zone is just filled to the brim with story. There’s the main story and what’s going on in the Throne of Elements, but we’ve added in a lot of additional Easter eggs and tons of cameos and backstory on old favorites, so keep an eye out as you go through the zone. You’ll also meet a new faction here.

Q. How would you describe the zone’s ambience? What’s it like?Kurt Sparkuhl:It feels like old Nagrand. Out of all the zones, it’s the one that’s supposed to feel the most familiar. When Draenor became Outland, Nagrand was probably the area affected least by the world breaking apart. Now you’ll see all these big canyons and rocky outcroppings all over the zone, implying that after the big explosion happened and Draenor turned into Outland, those floating islands were kind of what was left of those big ridges. There was a conscious effort to make it feel familiar to some extent, while still creating something new.

Eric Maloof: You’ll encounter a lot of new points of interest in this version of Nagrand. There are some things that are no longer there, too—Halaa and Garadar, for example, don’t exist. These were created after Outland became what it did. Highmaul takes up a large portion of the zone, and it houses a Raid instance as well. It’s massive.

Q.Which locations would you say are some of your favorites, and why?Eric Maloof: This one’s tough. There are so many good places to choose from. I’m definitely partial to Lok-Rath. It’s located outside the main Warsong base and is the Warsong clan’s main presence in the zone. I like the story of what’s happening there and the dynamic change in the questing once you get there. Plus, it’s a beautiful Warsong location.

I also really like the Spirit Woods. In Outland, you had the Spirit Fields. In Warlords of Draenor, the Spirit Woods are what surround Oshu’gun. You get to learn more about the forces that dwell there and what they’re doing—we explain that a bit as you’re taking care of business.

...we get to see more of the backstory of the Burning Blade clan...

Kurt Sparkuhl:I think the two I like the most are Hallvalor and the Ring of Trials. Hallvalor—which became the ogre-inhabited Burning Blade Ruins in Outland—is super cool; we get to see more of the backstory of the Burning Blade clan, which we haven’t gotten to show before. We get to see how their clan operates and some of their traditions. There are some familiar faces—at least one in particular— that you’re going to get a lot of backstory on.

The great thing about the Ring of Trials is that players get to see it a bit earlier on in its existence and learn more about why it’s there and what its purpose is. It’s been built up as a sort of neutral hub, and players will be able to interact with all sorts of NPCs from all over Azeroth and Draenor—it’s pretty cool, but I don’t want to spoil too much.

Q. What outposts will players be able to build in Nagrand, and how do they impact the Garrison?Eric Maloof: The Alliance and the Horde get the choice of two different buildings. You’ll get access to this decision early on, though your blueprints are waylaid by the Warsong at the start, so you’re going to need to recover those first. You’ll be able to build either a Corral or a Tankworks for your Garrison.

For the Corral, you’ll get either a Talbuk on the Alliance or Frostwolf on the Horde, which you can ride all the time while you’re in Nagrand—this is where mounted combat comes into play. If you build the Tankworks, the Alliance gets a Siege Engine and the Horde gets a Demolisher.

Heart of the Valorous Returns

It's back again! Heart of the Valorous returns this weekend. For more information, including several helpful tips to maximize your Valor gains, check out our page on the buff!

Blizzard

Beginning Friday, August 8 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, through Monday, August 11 at 9:00 a.m. PDT, we’ll be applying the Heart of the Valorous buff which will increase the rate of Valor Point gains an additional 100%. Don’t wait to get in on the action!

Blue Tweets

We know it's hard to keep up with tweet traffic, especially at busy times like this, so we've put together a post sorting all the tweets since our last update into easy-to-read tabs. And of course there's the Wowhead Blue Tweet Tracker and @WowheadTweets on Twitter!

Comment by sondave78

Comment by Axmand

I dont have a favorite zone in Outland but this "new" Nagrand seems ok, wish to be in the beta.

About the subs, well hope with the release of WoD more people will join and back... it would be nice if they say the region where the subs are down...

Comment by 8656565ros1

on 2014-08-05T17:10:52-05:00

Regardless of a 800k loss, WoW has plenty of players. Once the WoD hits it will increase again. I personally stopped my sub in Feb because I knew WoD would hit at the end of the year and SoO was the last raid. There was a given gap, so why pay for nothing lol.

Comment by Djodrake

on 2014-08-05T17:18:17-05:00

Operation TinyCow sounds intriguing.

Comment by LonelyMole

on 2014-08-05T17:27:44-05:00

Preview is pretty stunning!

I think it's sad, no matter what this is still a great game. We have had a lot added in the last 7 years, that's how I feel about it. Of course I'm looking forward to Draenor, but I'm still very pleased with MoP.

Comment by Nhuvasarim

on 2014-08-05T17:30:09-05:00

The only thing that bugs me with Blood DKs is that using BB is great and all, but if you're silenced for any reason...

At least with HS, you could still use it when silenced.Or is this addressed in the Beta?(I'm not in, so I don't know.)

Comment by jcf190

on 2014-08-05T17:54:06-05:00

In today's investor call for Quarter 2 2014, which covers the months of April, May and June 2014, Blizzard revealed that WoW now has 6.8 million subscribers. This is a drop of 800,000 subscribers from the Quarter 1 2014 figure of 7.6 million.

Maybe people are starting to realize that a 10 year old game just isn't that much fun anymore. I'll remember the good times fondly though. You don't spend nine years of your life dedicated to something without getting some good memories out of it.

Even with those figures, WoW still holds almost 35% of the market share for MMOs. There isn't even a close second. It's not going anywhere any time soon.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2014-08-05T17:59:12-05:00

an't but ANYTHING on the AC because people are selling very low level gear for HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of gold

Gear is simple to get and replace leveling though; you shouldn't be buying low level items because it's a waste of money. As for why it sells for so much...the answer is in Transmog.

but you (Blizzard) need to come up with a way to get and KEEP new subscribers.

1. Comment on the official forums where you can reach Blizzard.

2. That's the entire point of the level 90 boost that is coming with Warlords, to give new people a chance to play with their friends.

Comment by Hakunamatata

on 2014-08-05T18:00:07-05:00

WOW IS DYING! In caps. There. You don't have to say it anymore. Move on. <3

Comment by Wizairde

on 2014-08-05T18:04:06-05:00

In other news that's still more subscribers than all of SOE games combined. Wait - they do still make EQ and EQ2 right? It wasn't axed with Vanguard and Free Realms and DCUO? Oh yah they have that EQ Next Landmark that their 'pre-quel' to EQ Next that you get to pay for. I'm content here in WoW.

Comment by lightclaw

on 2014-08-05T18:16:36-05:00

In today's investor call for Quarter 2 2014, which covers the months of April, May and June 2014, Blizzard revealed that WoW now has 6.8 million subscribers. This is a drop of 800,000 subscribers from the Quarter 1 2014 figure of 7.6 million.

Maybe people are starting to realize that a 10 year old game just isn't that much fun anymore. I'll remember the good times fondly though. You don't spend nine years of your life dedicated to something without getting some good memories out of it.

The much larger factor is Blizzard's absurdly slow schedule for releasing content. With the revenue they're bringing in, there is just no excuse for the pace. Just looking at Pandaria, we had release, 2 months to a minor content update, 4 months to a significant content update, 2 months to a minor, 4 months to a significant. That 12 months took us from September 25, 2012 to September 10, 2013, from Pandaria launch through the opening of Siege of Orgrimmar. That is an OK schedule in my mind. The real problem comes in after the final major patch to an expansion, when Blizzard finds it acceptable to wait an entire year before releasing more content. Of course they're going to lose subscribers, and many of them won't come back.

We'll find out the exact release date in a few days, but there is no way it will be any less than a full year from the last raid patch of Pandaria to the opening of Warlords, and likely it will be a few months more than that. We haven't even gotten spoilers yet on here regarding the prelaunch event, so I'm expecting November at the earliest. I like WoW, and more importantly at this point, I like the people I've come to know through WoW, but if money was even a little tight for me I would have cancelled my sub about 6 months ago.

Comment by Thedarkone72

on 2014-08-05T19:18:43-05:00

I wonder how many people are leaving because they are bored since there has been nothing new in a while and are going to come back for WoD, or they are leaving because they don't like what Blizz has planned for the new release? I will admit I am not looking forward to my toons being nerfed. I only play a few different types and I like them the way they are. I don't have problems with button bloat (or whatever they are calling it) as an excuse to take things away. I have said it before and I'll keep saying it, I think they are trying to get rid of players so they can just shut it down. 10 years is a good run for a game, but I think it may be time to look for something new. On another note, I agree with MrGubs, I've run the raids and spent my coins to try for gear that just doesn't seem to drop. I've killed Huolon over 300 times (yes, I started keeping track) and still no drop, so if there are people having the kind of luck (all bad) that I am it's no wonder they are getting bored and leaving. I just seem to not have anything better to do with my life/time, as sad as that sounds. I do want to see how WoD is going to turn out, but if it doesn't WOW me, I'll be joining the 800,000 fromt eh first quarter and have to find something else to do.

Comment by Xxrrsteve

on 2014-08-05T20:00:56-05:00

In other news that's still more subscribers than all of SOE games combined. Wait - they do still make EQ and EQ2 right? It wasn't axed with Vanguard and Free Realms and DCUO? Oh yah they have that EQ Next Landmark that their 'pre-quel' to EQ Next that you get to pay for. I'm content here in WoW.

DCUO is still around. =)

I think the "WoW is dying" crowd is ignoring the fact that the subs haven't had this massive of a drop since about a year ago. It's been straddling between 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8 since June of LAST YEAR. In fact, at one point, subs actually went UP! Yeah, can you believe that?

Yeah, 800,000 is a lot, but compared to what's been going on for the past year, this is a papercut.

Comment by Gigabear

on 2014-08-05T20:40:54-05:00

In other news that's still more subscribers than all of SOE games combined. Wait - they do still make EQ and EQ2 right? It wasn't axed with Vanguard and Free Realms and DCUO? Oh yah they have that EQ Next Landmark that their 'pre-quel' to EQ Next that you get to pay for. I'm content here in WoW.

DCUO is still around. =)

I think the "WoW is dying" crowd is ignoring the fact that the subs haven't had this massive of a drop since about a year ago. It's been straddling between 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8 since June of LAST YEAR. In fact, at one point, subs actually went UP! Yeah, can you believe that?

Yeah, 800,000 is a lot, but compared to what's been going on for the past year, this is a papercut.

Apologist alert. Over 10% of your sub base in 1 quarter is a heck of a lot more then a "paper cut."

Comment by lovelywaz

Not really a fact because china and few other asian countries don't have a monthly fixed payment sub option.

They have hourly game time payment system. So you can not just calculate 6.8mil x $15 to get the exact yearly revenue they get from the subs.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2014-08-05T20:54:31-05:00

Over 10% of your sub base in 1 quarter is a heck of a lot more then a "paper cut."

And yet...they are still raking in money hand over fist.

Give it time, just like with MoP the subs will rise again when Warlords come out, then there will be the flow back down, then as new patches come out they will spike again.

But this isn't the largest they've had for sub losses, and Blizzard still has the highest sub numbers of any current game out there, so if they lose some people, it's not going to suddenly mean that something will be cut from Warlords.

As long as Blizzard makes money on the game, it will continue.

Comment by Tuckle

on 2014-08-05T22:18:15-05:00

I must be one of the few that didn't like the old Nagrand. Sure it looked beautiful, but the zone itself was uninspired and questing there was terrible. Other than those first few quests (kill 50 of X, Y and Z) I'd skip the zone completely. Hopefully the new zone will be more fun. It's all good and great to make things look pretty, but the game play has to match up.

Comment by Xxrrsteve

on 2014-08-05T22:30:25-05:00

In other news that's still more subscribers than all of SOE games combined. Wait - they do still make EQ and EQ2 right? It wasn't axed with Vanguard and Free Realms and DCUO? Oh yah they have that EQ Next Landmark that their 'pre-quel' to EQ Next that you get to pay for. I'm content here in WoW.

DCUO is still around. =)

I think the "WoW is dying" crowd is ignoring the fact that the subs haven't had this massive of a drop since about a year ago. It's been straddling between 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8 since June of LAST YEAR. In fact, at one point, subs actually went UP! Yeah, can you believe that?

Yeah, 800,000 is a lot, but compared to what's been going on for the past year, this is a papercut.

Apologist alert. Over 10% of your sub base in 1 quarter is a heck of a lot more then a "paper cut."

Compared to the steady rate of ~7.8-7.6mil for about a year, yeah, it is a papercut.

If we had any major content during the last, say, 4 months that resulted in us being on to play it instead of doing nothing, the number of subs lost would not be as big. It's because of the pre-expansion lull. It's going to go back up once the expansion hits, we've seen it with mists. Where it goes from there is anyone's guess.

Comment by remotettl

on 2014-08-05T22:52:24-05:00

when WoW will drop till 5 million subs.,.. will they celebrate semideath of it?